This paper briefly explores the expected impact of the ‘Global Drivers’ (such as population demographics,
food security; energy security; community security and safety), and the role of sustainability engineering
in mitigating the potential effects of these Global Drivers. The message of the paper is that sustainability
requires a significant input from Ergonomics/Human Factors, but the profession needs some expansion in
its thinking in order to make this contribution.
Creating a future sustainable world in which people experience an acceptable way of life will not
happen without a large input from manufacturing industry into all the Global Drivers, both in delivering
products that meet sustainability criteria (such as durability, reliability, minimised material requirement
and low energy consumption), and in developing sustainable processes to deliver products for sustainability
(such as minimum waste, minimum emissions and low energy consumption). Appropriate
changes are already being implemented in manufacturing industry, including new business models, new
jobs and new skills.
Considerable high-level planning around the world is in progress and is bringing about these changes;
for example, there is the US ‘Advanced Manufacturing National Program’ (AMNP)’, the German ‘Industrie
4.0’ plan, the French plan ‘la nouvelle France industrielle’ and the UK Foresight publications on the
‘Future of Manufacturing’.
All of these activities recognise the central part that humans will continue to play in the new
manufacturing paradigms; however, they do not discuss many of the issues that systems ergonomics
professionals acknowledge. This paper discusses a number of these issues, highlighting the need for
some new thinking and knowledge capture by systems ergonomics professionals. Among these are
ethical issues, job content and skills issues.
Towards the end, there is a summary of knowledge extensions considered necessary in order that
systems ergonomists can be fully effective in this new environment, together with suggestions for the
means to acquire and disseminate the knowledge extensions
